Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A haunting mystic nightmare movie from literary architect / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval horror when foreigners become subjects in a cursed ritual. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of perseverance and old world terror that will reimagine the horror genre this Halloween season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic screenplay follows five young adults who snap to imprisoned in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the ominous rule of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be captivated by a screen-based journey that merges instinctive fear with mystical narratives, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a mainstay tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the spirits no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the haunting dimension of each of them. The result is a harrowing mental war where the emotions becomes a intense tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a barren landscape, five friends find themselves confined under the dark effect and possession of a obscure entity. As the youths becomes paralyzed to resist her dominion, severed and chased by powers unimaginable, they are made to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch without pause edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and bonds shatter, urging each protagonist to reflect on their existence and the principle of personal agency itself. The tension rise with every heartbeat, delivering a paranormal ride that weaves together occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken deep fear, an evil that existed before mankind, manifesting in psychological breaks, and testing a force that tests the soul when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers internationally can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this mind-warping journey into fear. Join *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these unholy truths about our species.


For film updates, director cuts, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus American release plan interlaces primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, and IP aftershocks

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with biblical myth and extending to legacy revivals in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex and tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners lay down anchors with franchise anchors, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with unboxed visions set against ancient terrors. Meanwhile, independent banners is fueled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching spook slate: continuations, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The fresh genre slate packs early with a January glut, and then carries through summer, and straight through the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the dependable lever in release plans, a category that can surge when it breaks through and still protect the liability when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed top brass that modestly budgeted fright engines can dominate pop culture, the following year extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The tailwind translated to 2025, where resurrections and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with intentional bunching, a balance of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a reinvigorated strategy on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Planners observe the horror lane now works like a wildcard on the distribution slate. The genre can arrive on many corridors, supply a easy sell for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that lean in on previews Thursday and return through the second weekend if the release fires. After a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that logic. The year launches with a heavy January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a autumn push that reaches into the Halloween frame and into early November. The program also underscores the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and established properties. Major shops are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting move that threads a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a lively combination of known notes and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a heritage-honoring treatment without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by iconic art, early character teases, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that mixes attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a gritty, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in the navigate to this website market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that optimizes both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival additions, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 have a peek at these guys at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that routes the horror through a little one’s unreliable point of view. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.